My designs have been influenced strongly from what I’d learned in flying my beloved Aeromod Voltij and studying open source plans and photos of the MiniToons v1 on EPP Concept, as well as BPLR’s Madslide, experience with scale models of the MDM-1 Fox and S-1 Swift, and lastly experience flying an early prototype of the Dream-Flight Alula forward swept flying wing.

The Le Fish plan was intended as a first step towards my stated goal above, to create a lightweight EPP aerobatics glider that would allow me to take what I love about flying a Weasel and go even further. The resulting design has brought me hours of enjoyment, and the commercial success of the kit offered by Leading Edge Gliders has been a wonderful thing to see (Jack tells me it remains one of his top sellers). I’m so glad to have been able to give something back to the hobby and community that I love so deeply.

But it is thanks entirely to the pioneering work of “Swiss Peter” Richner that I have been able to realize my original dream in today’s ultralight version of Le Fish. By covering the plane in lightweight but strong laminating film as described in the “How to Build a Swiss Fish” thread, Peter literally made possible the vision of flying a fully aerobatic EPP glider in light lift. So a huge “Thank-You!” to Peter for his efforts, without which we would not enjoy the wonderful slope aerobatics that we do with Le Fish and other ultrabatic gliders today

In that same spirit of experimentation and shared journey, I encourage anyone and everyone to learn what they can from these designs, and make them better!

1) Attribution — You must provide attribution to Steve “Surfimp” Lange for all copies, adaptations and commercial uses of these designs. This attribution must not indicate that I in any way endorse you or your use of my designs.

2) Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

The traditional build of the Le Fish will fly with full aerobatic performance in a range of wind conditions from approximately 10mph – 25mph+ without ballast, depending on slope characteristics and pilot skill.

The ultralight build, based on the innovative construction techniques of “Swiss” Peter Richner as outlined in the “How to Build a Swiss Fish” thread, will allow the Le Fish will fly with full aerobatic performance in a range of wind conditions from approximately 6mph – 20mph without ballast, depending on slope characteristics and pilot skill.

Both versions of the Le Fish are designed with fullspan flaperons in mind, requiring both positive and negative snapflap mixing for best performance. In addition, the ability to apply camber or reflex via a switch, 4-axis sprung throttle or similar is highly recommend to extend the performance of the plane.